Greenpeace activists in South Korea taken by police for banner drop

Greenpeace activists have been taken away by police for questioning in Samchoek for hanging a banner on the front of the City Government building.

The 18 x 4.5m banner reads: "Nuclear free Korea is in the hands of Samchoek citizens."

We did this to draw attention to the fact that the majority of people in Samchoek are against the City Government's decision last year to go ahead with a nuclear power plant on a greenfield site.

Nuclear power is not the right future for Korea: it's dangerous and expensive – and we don't need it. While the rest of the world is holding back a little after the Fukushima accident, it seems that Korea is determined to ignore all the warnings and push on with nuclear energy expansion.

Two recent surveys, one by the Government's Site Selection Committee, and one by local newspapers, both came up with the same result: more than 50% of local people oppose nuclear power.

These are the people who would suffer under a nuclear accident. Greenpeace recently released our "Lessons for Fukushima" report that showed a severe lack of safety planning in the event of such a disaster.

We have also undertaken a very substantial modeling exercise with the German space agency (DLR) that shows that we could get out of nuclear power by 2030 and gain jobs, and save money in both investment and fuel costs.

Right now we are lagging behind all our Asian counterparts in the G20 in investment in renewable energy – we are 15th: behind Indonesia, India and Japan.

UPDATE: All have now been released without charge and are free to go. If you want to support a nuclear free Korea, sign the petition.